


you are berry handsome

by jeolmeoniji



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Valentine's Day, happy jaehyuns and valentines day!, hints of markhyuck because i can!, i don't know what happened with donghyuck's character in this one but i like it, jaehyun has it all or almost, there is a vending machine that is a really important character as well, there was an attempt at humor, yuta's long hair!!! we forever worship this and will forever remember this beauty!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22724746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeolmeoniji/pseuds/jeolmeoniji
Summary: It's Valentine's day, and Jaehyun only wants to have a strawberry milk, for fuck's sake.or; Donghyuck has a theory on Jung Jaehyun, and it's that he's the main protagonist of a shojo manga.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Nakamoto Yuta, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 138





	you are berry handsome

**Author's Note:**

> excuse the lame title?
> 
> welcome to my life, aka: look at that thing that happened to me, let's use the idea but make it gay and with a cheesy ending (this morning, i had to pay twice for the snack i wanted at the vending machine. no yuta to help me :'( )
> 
> i wrote this in like, 3 hours. it wasn't planned, but it's valentine's day, so this happened. enjoy!!

If there's one thing that doesn't work for Jung Jaehyun in his life, it's vending machines. It's only fair, because Jaehyun already has it all – the handsome look, the chill personnality, the friendly laugh and the soothing aura. The cherry on top is the baritone voice that everyone falls for. Jung Jaehyun isn't human and that's a theory that his freshman friend Donghyuck had tried to demonstrate one day during lunch at the loud cafeteria on campus. (It had been more funny than anything else, not shaking any PhD thesis out there, but it had made Mark laugh a lot, and Jaehyun knows that it's all that mattered to Donghyuck.)

Oh, one last detail about _the_ Jung Jaehyun: his birthday is on February 14th.

Is it Jung Jaehyun who's born on Valentine's day or Valentine's day that happens to be on Jung Jaehyun's birthday? Who knows. All in all, the lover boy's special day is on the day of love, and if that's not an argument for Donghyuck's thesis, then what is it, hm?

Jaehyun is the type of guy you can describe as a heartbreaker, but like, in a good way, if that's possible. Jaehyun is _sweet_. He's used to people liking him, but he's never accepted a girl's confession, and that adds to his aura of a real shojo manga main protagonist. (“ _See_ , I told you so!” Donghyuck would say.)

Jaehyun is shy; he's confident in his looks, but he also feels awkward when everyone tries so hard to make friends, and he doesn't see the spontaneity with that; he prefers to bond over group activities, like homework sessions or team games. He's part of the basketball team, mind you. (And if you're wondering, yes, it's one of Donghyuck's main point in his theory. Mark knows it by heart.)

Discussing about how perfect Jaehyun can be? Good idea. But it's funnier if the focus is on what makes Jaehyun imperfect: the non-existant luck he has with vending machines.

It's quite specific, not to be lucky about that. Vending machines are supposed to be convenient for everyone, but by fluke, it's the one facility that seems to hate Jaehyun. Jaehyun hates it back, but still tries to gain its love. Jaehyun is a really perserverant person. And he wants his strawberry milk between two classes, please.

The scenarios are endless: he can be short of one coin, or when he can use his credit card, the machine doesn't want to recognize it, or when he has lots of change then it's what he wants to have that is sold out. There's also the days where all the machines are just out of service. Those days are quite hard on Mark, because he needs quick shots of caffeine between the multitude of classes and clubs he's joined at the beginning of university. Unfortunately, Time-Turners only exist in Harry Potter, and Mark doesn't have enough time to go to the coffee shop to get his dose of caffeine, so those days are quite gloomy.

When Jaehyun's in luck, it's when he's with one of his friend, and they are the one who buy what he wants for him. One day, Jaehyun had carefully looked at Johnny's every move when he'd bought a cereal bar, which the vending machine kindly gave to him. (Who can be rude to Johnny? Not a vending machine. And people aren't rude to Johnny, it's Johnny who's rude to people, by his mere existence with how handsome he is doing nothing.) However, when Jaehyun went just after him, then suddenly he was in enemy territory. No way to get a little snack, the machine ate every change with nothing in return. Johnny ended up buying another cereal bar for him out of pity.

But today is Jaehyun's birthday, and it's also Valentine's day, and Jaehyun believes in love even if he doesn't have a significant other, and he's gonna get what he wants at the vending machine. (What a program.)

It waits conveniently next to the door of his next lecture, and he wants to treat himself something sweet to drink – he still plans to go annoy Jaemin later at the coffee shop, but he has two classes to go to. Even if it's his birthday, he's responsible. (“You're just feeding my thesis, hyung. Who can be _that_ perfect, huh?”)

Jaehyun has a few minutes to spare before his class begins, so he looks through his bag for his wallet, and with all the faith he has in this world, he takes the right amount of change to feed the mechanic monster and gets his treat in return. A strawberry milk. That's all he's asking for as a present for his birthday. (Not really. He also wants this collector LP that he's seen the last time he was window shopping with Doyoung. But right now, a strawberry milk would be really welcome.)

Jaehyun takes a breath, and put his coins one by one in the machine; diligently, it takes it, the coins making a little metallic sound when they get at the bottom. On the little display screen, it surprisingly shows the exact amount of money Jaehyun's put, and he thinks that maybe his birthday is a lucky day and that the love in the air in the whole campus has softened the grumpy vending machines that seem to be the only creatures on Earth to dislike Jung Jaehyun.

Jaehyun looks intensely at the machine when there's exactly  ₩ 1500 displayed, ready to be exchanged with his strawberry milk. This is the moment of truth. He enters the number of said milk, 1 then 2 then 7, and watches the machine recognizing and accepting his request.

He lets out a little cry of joy, which might look a bit odd, but he's  _so_ delighted. The day of love has won!  _He_ has  won!

The little steel swirl thingy, that keeps all the goods inside the machine in order, number 127, begins to move, and Jaehyun sees through the glass his holy strawberry milk carton slowly leaning forward, ready to follow the gravity and fall into the landing container at the bottom of the machine.

Except it doesn't.

Remember? If there's one thing that doesn't work for Jung Jaehyun in his life, it's vending machines. And today is no exception.

Jaehyun sees the swirl stopping, and his carton of strawberry milk staying still. Last time he checked, gravity still works – a glance around him confirms this physics law. It was too easy that the machine took his money, then allowed him to input his desired good's code.

Said desired good, a pink and white carton of strawberry milk with a smiling strawberry winking at him, is now stuck between the swirl and the glass, and looks like it's a good position to be in, this in-between, with no purpose except making Jaehyun want to cry.

“Are you _kidding_ me?” Jaehyun whines, and he tries to hit in a casual way the vending machine so it can budge the carton and makes it go at its right place – where Jaehyun can fucking _grab_ it.

It doesn't work, of course – no surprise here. The machine doesn't budge one bit, imperturbable, and the snacks don't even shudder in front of Jaehyun's annoyance. So much to be the most liked guy on campus, when even a carton of strawberry milk doesn't respect him.

Jaehyun looks around him, a bit ashamed, to check if someone's seen his misery. Or if someone would be kind enough to try to give him a solution, because he's desperate and his class begins so soon, and just, what did he even  _do_ to vending machines in his past life to be banned like this?

“Do you need help?” Jaehyun hears behind him, and he turns to look at the person who's taken pity in him on this Valentine's day.

Jaehyun finds himself face-to-face with one of the most handsome guy he's seen on campus. It's a bit, huh, lame to say that, but Jaehyun is really speechless. He's used to people being awed at his beauty, but for once it's him who's malfunctioning.

Donghyuck never shuts up about how Jaehyun comes right from a shojo manga. Scratch that. This guy in front of him is the truest incarnation of a shojo manga main protagonist.

The guy has silver long hair, kept away from his face with a black and white bandana, with still some rebellious strands that escape from it and frame his pretty face and rests against his forehead. He has a defined jawline, high cheekbones and an intense stare, with that hint of sexy insolence. While Jaehyun can be considered as the Mister Perfect, this guy would perfectly fit the Delinquant typical role in a plot. Not that Jaehyun is that quick to judge based on looks, but maybe his brain has fried a little bit because this stranger really is handsome and playing with his heartbeats in a mere matter of seconds.

“Yeah, hm, the carton is stuck against the glass, and I can't seem to be able to dislodge it...,” he mumbles, and the guy just smiles, which is really endearing.

“I see, wait.”

Jaehyun moves away from the vending machine, and the guy positions himself in front of him. Jaehyun doesn't really know which kind of trick he'll end up doing, but he's for sure surprised and a bit concerned when the other just goes for the vending machine's well-being and straight up hits it with the sole of his black leather shoes.

“W-wait!” Jaehyun tries to stop him, because it's a bit reckless, but he's stopped when the guy lets out a proud exclamation.

The sound that Jaehyun has wanted to hear, his carton of strawberry milk hitting the bottom of the machine where he can get it, finally comes through. It's a muffled sound, but it means the job is done. Without waiting, the guy that helped him bends over, and grabs the drink.

“Here you go!”

Proudly, he hands the carton to Jaehyun, and a bit flustered, Jaehyun accepts it.

“Thank you.”

“It was nothing,” the other replies, and then he chuckles a little bit, and makes a winner pose with his thumb and finger in a L shape accentuating the sharpness of his jawline, with a sweet little smile.

If Jaehyun knew better, he'd think that guy is flirting with him.

“I'm Yuta, by the way,” the guy introduces himself with a bright smile, and presents his hand so they can shake hands.

“I'm Jaehyun,” he replies, accepting the handshake.

Yuta doesn't need to know that when Jaehyun casually puts his hand in his pocket, scratch his nose and then pulls his fingers through his bangs to have a glimpse of his flawless forehead, he's kind of flirting. If Donghyuck was there, he would comment on it, for sure.

(Donghyuck isn't here, so Jaehyun is safe. But also, it would have been simplier to ask Yuta on a date, if Donghyuck just blew off his intentions with a snarky comment.)

“Are you taking that class?” Yuta asks, pointing at the door of Jaehyun's classroom, where his lecture will begin in – he checks his expensive watch at his wrist – thirty seconds. Shit.

“Actually, yes, and it'll begin soon, so I need to go–” he rushes, because he doesn't want to be late but he also doesn't want to leave Yuta without his number.

“I'm taking it too!” Yuta explains, and that solves everything. It seems like his smile has become brighter if that's even possible. Maybe Jaehyun is really gone for him. It's been, what? Two minutes he knows the guy?

Since they see the lecturer at the end of the corridor coming their way, they rush inside the classroom and sit next to each other at the back of the lecture hall by a tacit agreement. Fighting vending machines together apparently brings people closer.

In the one hour and fourty-five minutes that lasts the lecture, Jaehyun learns that Yuta is a Japanese exchange student freshly arrived this semester, that he's been in the same lecture as Jaehyun but they never noticed each other, that Yuta's fluent in Korean, which is really endearing – and later Jaehyun will learn that Yuta speaking Japanese is on another level of endearing – and when Yuta learns that it's Jaehyun's birthday, he takes it really seriously and invites him for a coffee to celebrate the day he's been born.

And also to take Jaehyun on a date.

Not Jaehyun's guess, but Yuta's words, because another thing that Jaehyun learns is that Yuta is straightforward, and maybe Jaehyun likes already all the few charms Yuta's showed him.

When Jaehyun finishes his strawberry milk and puts the empty carton in front of him, Yuta nudges his arm, and pointing at the finished drink, he says with a wink:

“You're _berry_ nice and handsome, you know?”

When Jaehyun gets the pun, he tries hard not to snort. 

Oh, he can't wait to go on his date with Yuta.

(Weeks later, Donghyuck wants to add something else in his thesis regarding Jung Jaehyun, and it's the new study case that is Nakamoto Yuta. Because, how unfair it is that the main protagonist ends up with another perfect handsome guy like Yuta? If that doesn't mean that life is playing priviledge and that Jaehyun has it all, then he doesn't know.

But, well, Donghyuck has the best boyfriend of Earth and it's Mark, so he doesn't really care  _that_ much.)

**Author's Note:**

> i used [this vid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tLdvJNXAk8&t=802s) as some references. i do my researches when writing lol
> 
> also i would read donghyuck's thesis, tbh
> 
> sooo how was it? :D
> 
> (i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/_renjunbaobei) <3)  
> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/jeolmeoniji)


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